Morgan Stanley announced Wednesday in an internal memo that it is firing 500 financial advisor trainees and redesigning its training program.
“These are individuals who were not tracking toward long-term success in the business,” retail brokerage head James Gorman wrote in the memo about the trainees being let go. He emphasized in the memo that the firm is not making reductions among financial advisors at the firm, which currently has 9,500 representatives, and remains “committed to the long-term growth of our sales force.”
Going forward, the firm will reduce the number of new trainees entering the program from the current range of 1,500 to 2,500 to approximately 700 to 1,000 each year. The redesign of the program is under way, and will be rolled out in the second half of this year. Morgan believes a smaller trainee program will be more effective, Gorman wrote in the memo.
“Over the past four years we have trained approximately 7,000 new financial advisors,” Gorman wrote. “While some of these individuals have been successful, many have not, and, in fact, are struggling to establish viable wealth-management practices in a profession that is increasingly demanding and difficult. It is time to evaluate and redesign our training program to increase the chances for success among its participants.”
